The intention is to introduce you to the people who have been carving their own path...with no care for what anybody thinks.

We try not to post things that are still for sale but sometimes post things that are not easily available. If you like what you hear, then find these people and tell them how great they are.

Better still, tell them and then seek out their new releases and buy them. We add links, when they are reliable and active, so that you can keep track if you so wish.

Always go straight to the artist or the label where possible. That way, the money goes straight to the people responsible for this art. These people rely on our support to keep going and make more quality releases!

Please feel free to leave comments as you go along...at least then we know you appreciate this stuff (or otherwise) and you're not just a bunch of freeloading file collectors.

If you made this music and we have pissed you off by posting any of this, please leave a comment in the post and the offending articles will be removed.

Middle James Co, from Hamilton Ontario, started out as a clearly post-American Tapes/post-Fag Tapes cassette label. The covers were artfully sloppy, the tapes were spray painted, production quality was mainly of the recorded-onto-a-walkman-from-across-the-street variety, and the productivity was immense even though editions were extremely small. It took awhile for main MJC man David Payne to come into his own, and boy did he ever. Later/recent recordings done under his own name and especially those by his band Fossils are stunning.

This untitled cassette is from 2006, and was "published" (if you could even call it that) in an edition of just 13 copies. It shows an early hint at the punk-David Tudor/Voice Crack homemade-electronic scrunch that would grow more refined in subsequent years, but it's still a quite good live-in-one-take dirt-bath.

Every day is Halloween. You knew that. But because the day after tomorrow is the actual Halloween, I thought I'd begin posting some music by Happy Halloween, who you may know better as the utterly brilliant Dutch artist/composer Roel Meelkop. This was one of Meelkop's first releases, a cassette issued on the Turntable Tapes label in 1985.

This is an absoultely stunning CD from the S&Q crew. It is easily my favourite Smell & Quim release (and I love them a lot).

This was released in 2009 on L. White Records and is posted with the kind permission of the label owner. Thanks Peter!

Track 1 is called "Doddy's Cock" ... it's related directly to Ken Dodd (an example of the sheer torture that passed as culture in these shitty isles). At one point (?Michael Gillham) screams TWATifilareous (that walking corpse had a catchphrase when he had the diddymen and the tickling stick schtick of "Tatifilarious" ... it's all true ... it's how empires fade!) and then I realised it was quite seriously "Suck on Ken Dodd's cock" and once you know that it's impossible not to smile...

Track 2 is "Fuckseed" and it took me about a dozen listens to get past. I really struggled with it at first. It seemed like a disgusting whitehouse/sotos celebration of misogyny. It's not (or at least I see it as the opposite...the anthem of the arsehole!). Michael Gillham methodically ranting "his" hatred of a woman who has escaped "him" and then eventually I realised that it is the entirely internal dialogue of a pathetic and isolated shithole of a man...probably sat in his stained underpants and vest surrounded by empty Special Brew cans and cig dimps, recognising his powerlessness, dreaming of past "glories" and actually sitting in silence...

The cover is notable, in that it is entirely black with plain white text, nothing more, and yet two people are credited with "cover design and concept". One is We Be Echo (perhaps he was the one who said "Let's make the cover all black"), the other is Livevil label boss Hirokazu Takagi (who probably said "I agree, and the text should be white"). The "unrestrained philosophy" of the title must have been "the path of least resistance". Still, one can't argue with the music, which is entirely wonderful.
By the way, Takagi was a member of the electronic/noise/improv band Billy?, but now, apparently, he makes bizarre iPhone ringtones.

Just to show that I sometimes pay attention to the comments ... there was a bit of a conversation about Smell & Quim's "Miss Piss" 7" in Mrs Inside's S&Q post.

I have that single in one of the many many boxes (christ alone knows which one!). Safe to say, I haven't ripped it yet otherwise, I would have posted it now.

As a pointless consolation prize, here is a 7" released on Spite in 1998 that I had got around to.

The Cock E.S.P. info on discogs is priceless and surprisingly unironic and I can't improve on it:

"Cock E.S.P. are a Minneapolis based circus trio. They are a true modern day noise freakshow regularly to be found on the highways and byways of America on constant tours to numb their pain. With over two hundred releases under their belts on various labels from around the globe they are respected by many and hated by most musicians and press. They are America's finest noise band and total cocks."

If you have a rip of Miss Piss...I'd love you to share it! It would save me from constantly forgetting that I have to get around to doing it!

2007 cassette from Kentucky's Josh Lay, originally appearing on the fantastic Phage Tapes label in an edition of 64 copies. Go visit Phage Tapes' website and buy anything! You can't go wrong. Those guys know quality... but they also know "limited editions", so get 'em while you can.

Radical left-wing power electronics from Providence, Rhode Island, USA, featuring Jeff Plummer (Immaculate: Grotesque) and vocalist Rob Hill. This is their first cassette, self-released by the band in 2006.

The radical politics of Noam Chomsky or Slavoj Zizek and the righteous left-wing rage of Crass or Ad Busters, as filtered through modern art-school-basement hardcore/power electronics. This is very punk noise, in the best way. Honestly, someone should take all five of these c10 tapes and make 'em into one nice LP with a gatefold sleeve of the collage art that's folded inside the little plastic cases. Ooh, and a fold-out poster too! Shallow Waters deserves treatment like that. But until that happens, my rip from a cassette stuck up on a blog will have to suffice.

A c20 full of filth and low-velocity sonic mud, published in an oversized cardboard box that might be Banned Production's least elegant package. Nice sounds, though, especially if you like really ugly noise.

Seed Mouth's only CD, self-published in 1996, and boy does it have an appropriate title. This is the sound of sinking into a frigid ocean with no hope of rescue, surrounded by massive ice-cold analog glaciers... brrrrrr...

How many Japanese noise cassettes can you name that are dedicated to a girl on her birthday, and which feature an adorable line drawing of the birthday girl surrounded by puppies and kittens on the front cover? I'll wait here while you count.

This fourth Seed Mouth tape was self-released by the artist in 1995. Lots of bleary synth over a bed of confused radio static.

In his brief time as an active noise musician, the late Hirohito Taneguchi (aka Seed Mouth) produced a small number of excellent, under-the-radar albums. This one is his third cassette, released in 1992 and issued (as most of his music would be) on his own Seed Records label. To lump Seed Mouth in with "Japanese noise" is unfair and inaccurate. His music was more of a melancholy, distant fog of indistinct radio chattering and clouds of poisonous synthesizer smoke. Seed Mouth - Gurgitation

Before he was America's Greatest Living Noise Artist, Emil Beaulieau was just Ron Lessard, owner of the legendary RRRecords shop in Lowell, MA. For this cassette on the RRRecords label (catalog #RRR-K7-12 for all you noise nerds), Emil takes a stack of RRR "anti-records" and plays them on his record player so that you don't have to ruin your own needle. The sound of melted, chopped up, and blank wax, distilled onto dusty old plastic tape for maximum RRR fidelity.

An immensely rare item, this Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock CDR was published in an edition of just seven copies by the Ignivomous label in 1997. Yes, you read correctly: 7 copies. The only way to get it was to write to the label and make an offer. If the offer was accepted, you got your CDR in the mail. And now, here it is for you.

Another guitar/trumpet blur by Heathen Shame, this time recorded (duh) live in a town called Chicago in the year 2002 and made "available" in 2003. Like the previously posted album, this scorcher graced the world in an edition of 25 numbered copies. You were not one of the 25 people to buy this. The tears end today, my friend. Everything is going to be alright.

White-hot ecstatic free noise by the power trio of Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar (also of Twisted Village/Major Stars, burning up the guitars) and Greg Kelley (of Nmperign, on significantly amplified/amphetamine-dosed trumpet). This CDR was published in an edition of just 25 numbered copies.

The other DSM cassette from 1982, also published by Das Cassettencombinat, was Audience of the Soul Destroyers. For such an early work, it's clear that Hubner had a clear idea of what he was doing. Rough and jagged outsider industrial noise, this tape (and others posted here) may demonstrate audible empathy with early 80's Berlin contemporaries Freider Butzmann and Einsturzende Neubauten, but are also quite unique. Hubner's work would only grow richer and bolder with time, and he is still producing excellent work today.

Intricate, dense, thoughtful, and occasionally brutal industrial concrete noise by the composer and installation artist Guido Hubner, doing business as Das Synthetische Mischgewebe with a rotating cast of collaborators/enablers. This very early cassette was one of two that came out under the DSM flag in 1982. It was initially published by the legendary Berlin label Das Cassttencombinat, which was also home to such cheerful dilettantes as Sprung aus den Wolken and Die Todlische Doris.

Mammoth six CDr set put out on (the otherwise unknown to me) Slop Drug label in 2008.

You already know all about The Rita, Vomir and Last Rape. In case the others are new to you:

Griz+zlor has now ceased operations under this name but he will hopefully continue to release material. Thankfully, Paul dvr has uploaded a wealth of material on his bandcamp page. You should check it out! Gasmask is the work of Cody Ouimet who used to run Trench Knifed Tapes. Paranoid Time is the work of Patrick Yankee. Whilst he was very prolific between about 2005 and 2010, releases slowed down. However, 2013 saw a new tape on Enemata Productions (who have put their catalogue up on bandcamp for free streaming. With a bit of luck we can look forward to a bit more Paranoid Time in our lives.

The bleak, stubbornly anti-human non-music that arose from Tokyo's Off Site scene has always baffled me. I've heard a ton of music, and lemme tell you... it takes a lot to baffle me. One of the scene's chief instigators/antagonists was (is?) Toshimaru Nakamura, who plays a mixing board feeding back onto itself. Some of his work resembles music. Other times, it's a thin wave of nearly-eventless piercing sine tones that feels no need to make itself easy to listen to. These live collaborations with cellist Daniel Weaver (aka Unplugboy)from their 2001 UK tour is one of Nakamura's more music-like productions. It came out as a set of two 3"CDs in an adorable little stapled pouch.

This little business-card CDr from 2001 is significant for two reasons. First, it probably (correct me if I'm wrong) holds a record for having the most photographs of the artist in the smallest package. I count ten images of Ami's face. Well, I suppose it really is a business card! Second, it was the solo debut of vocalist Ami Yoshida, now known as part of the post-Off Site crew of Tokyo improvisers. / .Read more...

Enos Slaughter‎ were a great freakfolk improv outfit and featured Carter Thornton (aka Zashiki-Warashi) David Shuford (aka D. Charles Speer and member of No-Neck Blues Band, The Suntanama and Egypt Is The Magick # amongst others) and Marc Orleans (member of Sunburned Hand Of The Man as well as The Helix who record alongside D. Charles Speer).

This CDr was released on Tequila Sunrise Records in 2003. It contains a track called Floor Child.

"all music recorded at night, outside, under a pink sky with fast clouds. special guest appearance by our good friend the wind on microphones."

A 2xCDR set in a numbered edition of 101 copies, published on Aube's own G.R.O.S.S. label. The title says it all. These tracks originally appeared on Noise Tournament vol. 5 (a collaboration with K2), a split 3"CDR with LOSD, Across the Water (a collaboration with Small Cruel Party), Daseinsspanne (a collaboration with Telepherique), Autodecision (on Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers), Sacrament (on Meeuw Muzak), a split 7" with Grunt, Organized (a collaboration with RLW), Parametalist (on Clate), and split 7"s with Source Direct, TACO (on Syntactic), and Naoidil, as well as one unreleased track.

4xCDR set in a numbered edition of 101 copies, reissuing four Aube LPs from 1995 and 1997. These were all originally published by Praxis Dr. Bearmann, but this set was made by Aube himself and published on his own G.R.O.S.S. label.

Another trip down the archive of French punk/concrete genius Brume, this one came out as a CDR in an edition of 250 copies on Transfixtional Entertainment (the label run by Anemone Tube) in Germany. The disc is subtitled "Finest Selection 1989-1997", which I guess sums up what you'll find here.